Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of unfavorable weather factors at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To relieve airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches from Monday.
Following the cancellation of the mission, the company said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as early as midweek within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the firm if accomplished.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was considered a success, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Recovery Efforts
In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the administration pile pressure on NASA to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
